1. Field
The present disclosure relates to antibodies specifically binding to c-Met and kits for diagnosing cancer using the antibodies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a mesenchyme-derived pleitrophic cytokine that binds the extracellular region of the tyrosine kinase receptor, c-Met, to induce mitogenesis, movement, morphogenesis, and angiogenesis in various normal cells and tumor cells. Regulation of the HGF/c-Met signaling pathway is implicated in various mechanisms related to cancer, such as tumor progression, metastasis, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. In addition, c-Met amplification or mutation is thought to drive ligand-independent tumorogenesis. Thus, c-Met has recently emerged as a new target for anti-cancer therapy.
c-Met interacts with proteins in the ErbB family, such as ERBB1 (epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)), ERBB2 (HER2), or the like, in intracellular signal transduction. Representative anti-cancer drugs targeting EGFR (ERBB1), i.e., Erbitux or Tarceva, work by blocking signal transduction related to a cancer development. Herceptin, which is a well known breast cancer drug, targets ERBB2 (HER2) and works by blocking signal transduction necessary for cell proliferation. However, recent findings indicate that among patients resistant to the drugs described above, the anti-cancer drugs do not work due to overexpression of c-Met protein and activation of other types of signal transduction that lead to cell proliferation. Thus, many pharmaceutical firms are developing anti-cancer drugs to inhibit c-Met.
In addition, c-Met is over-expressed in various kinds of cancers. In particular, most cancer cases in which the probability that the patient will recover from the illness is negative are known to be related to over-expression of c-Met. Thus, antibodies specifically binding to c-Met may be used for measuring c-Met expression in a patient clinical sample, and may thereby provide information that helps doctors decide on therapeutic action in treating the cancer.
Therefore, there is a continuing need for development of antibodies that specifically bind to c-Met and kits for detecting cancer using the antibodies.